Purple squirrel makes a splash in Pennsylvania

A purple squirrel has added a psychedelic touch to the rodents living in Pennsylvania.

A Pennsylvania couple discovered and captured a purple squirrel running around their yard, and they say they aren’t the ones who dyed it, the AFP reported.

"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple," said Percy Emert, who found the animal with his wife Connie, the AFP reported.

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Connie Emert, from Jersey Shore, Pa., discovered the purple squirrel creeping around her backyard and when she told her husband, he naturally didn’t believe her. But to prove him wrong, and that she wasn’t color blind, Connie put a trap out in the yard with a few peanuts, attracting the critter within a few days, the Associated Press reported.

Now Percy Emert couldn’t believe his eyes, and didn’t think anyone else would believe it, either.

“I thought, ‘Nobody’s going to believe me,” he said, the AP reported. “Even the inside of its ears were purple. It wasn’t like it fell into something. It didn’t look like that at all.”

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The strangest thing about the pastel squirrel is that it isn’t entirely impossible that he didn’t fall into a bucket of paint or was dyed.

"It's not typical, but it's not impossible," said Harold Cole, a warden with the Pennsylvania Game Commission who investigated the case, MSNBC reported.

However, it’s been hard to study the purple animal since only the Emerts and their friends actually saw it in person, MSNBC reported. While they posted photos online, they released the squirrel. They did keep some of the fur from the squirrel and gave samples to Cole, who said while it could go to a lab for analysis, the game commission wouldn’t pursue the case any further.

On Friday photos of the squirrel turned up on Facebook, and not long after an unofficial Twitter account was created for the purple squirrel. Even reality television’s Snooki, of the Jersey Shore in New Jersey, knew about the funky-colored squirrel. “OMG I want!” Snooki tweeted.

“Dear Cadbury… Easter is coming and I could replace that bunny… purple is your color!” the purple squirrel tweeted. He currently has more than 500 followers.

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